Cheap purchase in Pakistan

The word “action” is a cheap expression in South Asia. The raid on a Jamaat-ud-Dawa camp, a front for Lashkar-e- Taiba (LeT), in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is an attempt to buy some legitimacy—cheaply, of course.

Pakistan has taken such steps in the past, too. In 2002, it “banned” the LeT after affording the latter a chance to relocate much of its apparatus of terror.

The present raid, too, which began on Sunday, comes almost 10 days after it became clear that the LeT was behind the attacks in Mumbai.

It does not require much to see that by now, the terrorists are sure to have decamped, leaving empty compounds behind.

Pakistan is complicit in terrorism in many ways. Its establishment believes that terrorists are a good bet to derail India, even if groups such as the LeT have brought it to the edge of doom.

The government of India knows this, but is likely to buy this tale. Appropriate noises will emanate from government spokespersons, but there will be no ameliorative action to Pakistani chicanery. That’s as good as buying the tale.